


perfect scenarios don’t exist

by vertigoo



Series: how they came to be [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Team Crafted
Genre: Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, its mentioned once but will be brought up more in the future, opposite au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:09:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22592302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigoo/pseuds/vertigoo
Summary: Ian never asked to be alone but he couldn’t complain about it. It’s what he needed. What he thinks he wants. But maybe being alone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: how they came to be [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576558
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	perfect scenarios don’t exist

For what sometimes felt like as long as he could remember, Ian had walked in circles. Not small ones, that could be called constant pacing that he could get out of the moment his mind figured out what he was thinking of, he walked in large circles the spanned villages and forests and rivers, and he didn’t stop until the sun set and the mobs began to spawn. 

He always met people. It was hard not to, after all, and they’d say hi to him every time he passed through the village or walked past them on a trade route, but aside from that, he didn’t have anyone he talked to. Probably for the best, considering how snappy he could be at times, especially after being in one place for a particularly long time.

Being on the move helped calm his nerves, he would say, although it certainly wasn’t helping his life expectancy. Gritted teeth that his braces could never fix, especially with a piercing in the way, bones that clicked when he walked, and a constant slouch were all clear signs he was aging far faster than any normal man in their early twenties.

It’s not that he’d never tried to settle down either. Hell, he even bought a house at one stage, in a small quaint village near the shore that smelled of freshly baked bread in the morning. It didn’t last long, however, and soon Ian was on the move yet again.  _ Things got in the way _ . He was really beginning to wish he had that home right now.

The rainy season was more unforgiving in the jungle than Ian remembered it being. He was doing his best to escape the quickly rising waters, climbing vines as fast as he could and hopping from branch to branch trying to get to the highest point. Rain bucketed down from above, drenching him from head to toe, making his clothes unnecessarily heavy, and as if to make things worse, a bolt of lightning ran through the air right above him.

Under his breath, he prayed for the rain to put out the fire, to no avail. It, like the water, consumed the trees around him at a breakneck speed, and suddenly Ian had nowhere to go. Another bolt of lightning hit eerily close to the man, and now he was entirely certain that whatever forces controlled everything hated him, as the tree he was climbing snapped in half, sending Ian hurling into the murky waters below.

-

The first thing he felt was something pushing on his chest, then the taste of salty water exiting his lungs, travelling over his tongue and spurting out of his mouth. Ian sat up, coughing so hard he was certain he would lose a lung, bent over in pain. He opened his eyes and the world felt so much brighter than normal, and quickly he shut them again. His sunglasses, where were his sunglasses?

He patted his face, then around the ground next to him. It was sandy, but in the clammy way it gets when it’s partially wet but not fully. Finally he found them, or at least something similar, and shoved them on his face. He opened his eyes again and the first thing he saw was a face, right up in his own. 

“Ah!” Ian screamed, immediately going backwards as fast as he could on the damp sand. “Who are you?!” The man looked around at his surroundings, realising now just how far away from the jungle he was. “Where am I?”

The mysterious creature crossed its legs, it’s smile never leaving its face as it studied Ian. It had blue and white skin, with small slits in its neck which Ian presumed were gills, and it was unlike anything he’d seen before on his travels. There was a large light blue fin on its head, and on its cheeks and forearms there were large orange bumps that looked squishy to touch.

“I’m Husky!” The alien creature said cheerily. He held out one webbed hand as if asking for a handshake, which Ian reluctantly gave him. “And you’re in the middle of absolutely nowhere!”

“What do you mean nowhere?”

“I  _ mean _ ,” Husky got up and brushed away the sand clinging to his clothes, “I saw you floating like a dead fish so I decided to bring you to shore, but I don’t know where we are, so now we’re  _ both _ lost.”

Ian stared at Husky, gritting his teeth even harder than normal. “Great. That’s just… great.” He threw his hands up in the air and got up, spinning around on the spot and walking in the opposite direction to where Husky was standing.

“Hey, where are you going?” The fish-thing called out, jogging to catch up to Ian.

“Away.” 

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Because isn’t a reason.”

Ian groaned, running his hands over his face. “Because I don’t want to be here, okay?! I’m not meant to be here! I’m meant to be out there, on my own, wandering from town to town and not giving a fuck!” It accidentally came out as a yell, causing Husky to step back and raise his webbed hands up in a defensive manner.

“Okay. Cool,” Husky shifted from foot to foot, trying to hide his discomfort as best as he could, “that’s cool, I just, uh, figured, since you looked pretty lonely, you’d enjoy some company. I don’t think we’re gonna be finding anyone else here, at least not for a bit, so I just. You know.”

Ian began to walk away again and was pleased by the lack of footsteps following him, but when he turned around Husky was nowhere to be seen. It’s not like there was anywhere for him to hide, either; the beach they were on went on for what looked to be thousands of chunks in all directions except for the east, where all he could see was the water.

He could worry about that later, he decided. For now, he needed to go inland to see if there was any wood. Being caught outside in the night without any sort of defence against the creatures that would spawn was not exactly on Ian’s to-do list, and he was sure Husky had some idea of what he was doing. Maybe.

-

He felt like he’d been walking forever and he was yet to see a single tree. The sun was setting and he hadn’t even found a dead bush to gather sticks from. Finally, he spotted something in the sand. “Have I been walking in circles the whole fucking time?!” Ian yelled, matching the footsteps he’d found up with his own. He yelled a string of curses as he sunk to the ground, ready to let the mobs tear him apart.

“Hey! It’s you! I’ve been looking all over for you!” Ian heard a familiar voice call out. He sat up slightly and saw Husky wading onto the shore, arms full of kelp. “When you left I had no idea where you went, so I’ve just been collecting stuff and hoping you’d come back.”

Husky plopped down next to Ian and handed him some kelp to eat. It was still wet and slimy from the ocean, and any hunger he had instantly disappeared. “Uh… no thanks, I already ate.” He lied, picking it up like it was diseased and tossing it back to Husky.

“Oh, that’s too bad, this stuff tastes  _ really _ good,” Husky said around a mouthful of it, “Where’ve you been? You look all sweaty and stuff, what happened?”

“I was looking for wood. I didn’t find any, though,” Ian said the last part with an annoyed edge to his voice, “What about you? You look… different.”

And he did. Ian couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about the fish creature was slightly off, like a square with one side ever so slightly too long. “I was beating up some fish for lunch and I levelled up. I think I gained some more muscle when I devolved myself but all it does is make me look fatter.” Ian stared at Husky for a bit too long as he tried to figure out what any of what he said meant.

Finally, he decided to ask him properly. “What are you?” That came off a bit ruder than intended.

“I’m a mudkip!” Husky said, clearly not taking it too personally, “Or at least, sort of. I discovered I could stop myself from evolving after I got to level sixteen and so I’ve been doing that, but every time I do there’s always some sort of side effect. I’m level fifty now, and I would evolve normally, but I don’t really know how my mutations would translate over, and I don’t wanna look all weird.”

Ian nodded. He still didn’t understand anything Husky was saying, but at least now he could talk about him as what he was, and not ‘fish creature’. “Oh! I forgot to ask,” Husky said after eating another piece of kelp, “what’s your name? You didn’t tell me earlier.”

He didn’t really want to tell Husky his name. Every time he did it felt like he was opening up and when he opened up he felt compelled to stick around. Sticking around was something he couldn’t do. An old nickname would work. “Ssundee.”

If Husky had noticed how long it had taken for him to answer, or if he was suspicious of that, he didn’t show it. Instead, he held out a hand, still slightly wet and covered in tiny salt grains from the kelp, and smiled. “Well, it’s lovely to meet you Ssun,” Ian shook his hand, and then he said something he almost dreaded, “I think this is the start of a wonderful friendship.”

-

It was no secret Ian was afraid of commitment. It wasn’t the only thing he was afraid of, of course, but it was the only fear he’d been born with. Or at least, he’d feared it so long that he might as well have been. That’s why he’d joined the army. It was his last attempt to straighten himself out. 

It didn’t work, of course, and it became another job to add to his ever growing list of failures. But you can’t just run from a job like that, he’d learned. People were looking for him. Or it felt like they were. Everywhere he went, whether it was the centre of a city, filled with people he’d never know, or out in the middle of a forest surrounded by trees, he was sure that at least one pair of eyes were following him. He was sure that someone was going to bring him back.

PTSD is what they’d called it. It all stemmed from when his group had separated from the rest and stumbled right into a group of mobs from the Nether. He didn’t remember much from then, but he had the mental and physical scars for it. One eye was useless to him now, and he had to have his whole left arm replaced. Didn’t stop the people up top from sending him back out anyways.

The voices told him it was his fault. He hadn’t had them beforehand, and he knew they were fake, but they sounded so,  _ so  _ real sometimes. He’d almost given in to them however many times, but he knew he couldn’t. He was stronger than that. The decision to desert the Spawn City army was one he made without their input.

But he still didn’t expect it when Husky shook him awake, a look of concern on his face, screaming the lie of a name he’d told him. “Husky? What’s wrong?” He was tired, and the sky above was still covered in a blanket of stars, lit up only by the full moon.

“Oh, Ssun, thank Jeb you’re okay!” Husky exclaimed, quickly wrapping up Ian in a hug. As he slowly grew more awake, he began to realise he was sweating, hard, and that his hands were shaking and his breathing was rapid, as if he was coming back from a…

“You were screaming, in your sleep, and shouting all these things and then you were crying and shaking and I just- I was so worried! You looked so scared!” Husky had been crying over him, Ian realised, as the mudkip pulled away to look at who he deemed his friend properly, “I didn’t know what to do so I woke you up. I, uh, I hope you don’t mind.”

Ian shook his head. “Of course I don’t. I should thank you, actually.”

Husky laughed a little, wiping away the water in his eyes. “Why would you need to thank me? I’m just doing what’s expected of a- a…” Husky closed his mouth and looked away.

“A friend?” Ian suggested after a moment of silence.

“I was going to say something different, but yeah, friend works too,” Husky lay back down on the kelp mat he’d made from leftovers and turned on his side, “Well, we should go back to sleep. I’ll wake you up again if you have another nightmare, okay?”

A nightmare. Ian had avoided calling them that, but that’s what they were. Chronic nightmares. “Yeah, okay,” Ian shifted on his own mat, trying to get comfortable, “Goodnight, Husky.”

“Goodnight, Ssun.”

-

That morning, Ian woke up to the sound of a crackling fire and a low voice humming. He looked over, wiping his sunglasses on his shirt to try and get rid of the smudges, and saw Husky cooking some fish on a stick over a flame. “Good morning, sir!” The mudkip said, before quickly realising what he said, “I mean Ssundee! Good morning, Ssundee!” He pulled the fish away from the fire and put it down on a piece of dried kelp, handing it over.

Ian decided it was better not to question the slip-up, just as Husky hadn’t questioned his nightmare last night. “This is for me?” Husky nodded, “Have you eaten?”

Husky faltered for a split second, his eyes widening slightly and his grip on the stick he was holding loosening ever so slightly, before he quickly went back to his normal cheery, busy self. “Of course! I had some fresh kelp before you woke up.”

Things were getting more suspicious, but he couldn’t ask questions. “Okay,” Ian finished his fish, before getting up and rolling up his kelp mat, “We should go looking for other people. We can only live off kelp and fish for so long, and it's only a matter of time before mobs find us without anything to defend ourselves.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Husky tossed aside his stick as he got up. He muttered something under his breath and a ball of water formed around his hand, before shooting at the fire he’d made, putting it out instantly. Ian stared at the wet coals wide-eyed for longer than he thought, because soon he was being pulled away by Husky, who was laughing at his dumbfounded expression.

They walked down the beach side by side, Husky occasionally stopping to pick up shells that seemed too big to be normal or to pet the heads of the turtles they passed. There was something ever so slightly childish in the way he acted, with wonder towards the world around him, even though he was a creature of the sea that had no doubt seen everything they were seeing now a hundred times before. What made it even more weird however, was how different it had been to how he’d acted the night previous.

The soft touch he’d had, as if he was scared he’d break Ian if he hugged any harder, the gentle look in his eyes, almost telling him he’d done nothing wrong even though he knew that, the soothing tone of his voice comparable to that of a child’s lullaby. It all alluded to something more, a past Ian was aware of.  _ A past he shouldn’t have to be aware of. _

The way Husky acted around Ian made it apparent he hadn’t interacted with any humans in a long, long time. Living underwater, perhaps? That would explain how he managed to find Ian so quickly without having any idea what was on land. But why would he care so much for humans that he would endanger himself for some stranger?  _ You need to stop asking questions. _

Ian wanted to know. He wanted to know really badly. But this voice was right, he shouldn’t ask such personal things, especially since he’s known Husky for hardly a day. He looked up at the mudkip ahead of him. He’d tied his mat around his neck so it flowed back like a cape, jumping around like a kid going to the beach for the first time. If it weren’t for the occasional glances Husky would send his way, Ian would’ve been sure last night was something he’d made up.

Suddenly, Husky stopped. “Look! Ssundee, look!” The mudkip grabbed his friend’s arm, pointing out to sea, “Land! And it looks like it has  _ trees _ !” Husky cheered, grabbing Ian around his waist and lifting him up into the air, spinning him around.

The two laughed together, clearly excited for the new land where they could, possibly, find someone else. If not, they at least had proper resources. Then Ian’s smile dropped. He was getting attached to this man he’d known for a day. This was  _ stupid _ of him. “Come on, Ssundee, let’s go!” Husky said, dropping Ian as he began to wade into the water.

Maybe they would be able to split up once they got to the other island. He looked out at the ocean, dipping his toes into the water cautiously and recoiling at the cold water seeping through his shoes. “I’m not swimming through that.”

Husky looked back and smacked himself on the forehead, as if he forgot something. “ _ Right _ , humans aren’t too great with cold water. Shoot,” he walked back to the shore and picked Ian up again, ignoring his protests as he slung him up onto one shoulder like a sack of potatoes, “Alright, now I just gotta keep the upper half of my body above the water, and you shouldn’t get wet.”

“What do you mean shouldn’t?” Ian asked, but Husky had already gone far enough into the sea that the water was at his hips as he hummed so loud that Ian could barely hear himself think. Maybe it was better this way. Then Ian couldn’t worry about whether or not the lights he saw on the seafloor were drowned outposts or not, or if redstone was as resistant to water as he’d been led to believe.

Then, Ian was being thrown off of Husky’s shoulder and onto the ground, his head sinking into the soft sand. “We’re here!” Husky cheered, looking at the forest in front of him, then down at Ian, “And I managed to keep you completely dry! Success!” 

Husky ran off and Ian had to scramble to catch up to him, the sand surprisingly more slippery than it should have been, in his opinion. His left arm hung limp at his side, meaning he’d have to pop it back into place later, but for now his main concern was keeping up with the mudkip that had just disappeared into the trees. He was bright blue, how hard could it be to find him anyways?

Ian ran in the direction he had seen Husky go in last, but he was getting tired of running through the brush and the branches of the trees, and his arm hanging limp at his side wasn’t helping. He finally decided to take a seat on the forest floor when he’d run out of breath, pulling his sweater over his head as best as he could with one arm and then rolling up the left sleeve of his shirt.

He stared at it for a moment. He knew his clothes had been a bit muddied and torn after the storm and being brought to a random desert island, but his arm looked a lot worse than he had thought it was. The plastic skin was ripped in places, revealing metal where they shouldn’t, and he began to wonder if that’s why Husky was so determined to keep him out of the water. 

Wiggling his arm around a bit, he pulled it out properly, shaking it out to make sure there wasn’t anything in the joint. Ian rested back against the trunk of the tree, shutting his eyes as he ran a finger around the edge of the metal joint. There was a rustling in the bushes nearby.

“Oh, uh, Ssun… is now a bad time?” Husky asked, and Ian opened his eyes. The mudkip was standing a fair distance away, kicking at the ground with his head down like a kid that had gotten into trouble.

“No! No, of course not,” Ian quickly grabbed his arm and tried to reconnect it to his shoulder, but the connection was dead, “ _ Shit _ , I need new redstone dust. You wouldn’t happen to have anything that could hold my arm to my shoulder, would you?”

Husky looked up, a smile growing on his face. “I have my kelp!”

“I thought you ate it all?”

“All the stuff I wanted to eat,” Husky took his cape off, “I can use the bottom of this to hold your arm in place.”

Ian scrunched up his face, feeling like he was asking too much of his friend. Who was he, anyways? To lie to someone about something as inconsequential as his name, then expect them to do whatever they wanted for him?  _ He was no better than those at the top _ .

“There! All better!” Husky took a step back, and Ian realised he’d been spacing out again. He looked down at his prosthetic arm, held flimsily onto his shoulder with braided kelp. Functionally, it was useless. But it meant a lot.

Ian got up and hugged Husky as best as he could, given his current situation. “You didn’t have to do this, but thanks.”

Husky hugged him back. It was a little too tight, and Ian could hear bones in his back clicking back into place, but maybe that wasn’t too much of a bad thing. “I did, and it was no problem.”

-

The two of them were walking through the trees, avoiding the prickly thorns on sweet berry bushes and running away from any mobs they heard or saw. Sometimes there would be the buzzing of bees or bark of a wolf, but aside from that, it was completely silent.

Husky came to attention, his eyes widening as he looked around frantically. Before Ian could ask him what it was, he ran off, his tail wagging so fast it became blurry. Ian called after him, running as fast as he could after the mudkip whilst trying to dodge the bushes and brambles Husky easily ran through.

Suddenly Husky stopped, barely breaking a sweat after having run through the forest, Ian panting as he finally caught up. “Ty, you can’t keep running off, all we’re doing is go in circles!” He heard an unfamiliar voice yell in the distance.

“Mind telling me-” Husky quickly shushed him, planting a webbed hand over his mouth. It smelled so much of kelp that he could practically taste it, and he gagged, before dropping his voice to a whisper. “Mind telling me why we just randomly ran through the forest?”

“I recognise that voice,” there was a smile on Husky’s face, wider than any of the other ones Ian had seen him wear, “Oh I really hope it’s him! He’d be older now, but he’d definitely accept me back into his home, I was like a parent to him!” 

“What are you talking about?” Ian asked, but his question went ignored as two men walked out of the opposite side of the clearing. One of them was pale and skinny, with short light brown hair and a pair of headphones covering his ears, whilst the other looked a bit more built, with a tan complexion and long dark brown hair, although something was off about his eyes.

Ian looked back at Husky, who’s smile had dropped. He was watching the two strangers bicker, and the more they did, the more uncomfortable he began to look. “Is it him?”

Husky looked down at Ian, almost shocked he was there, before calming down. A small, sad smile spread across his face. “No… it’s not. I don’t think I’ll find him again, at least not for a long time,” the mudkip bit his lip, before turning back to the strangers. Ian could practically see the light bulb go off above his head as he yelled out, “Hey, you two! What are you doing here?”

The one with headphones looked up and grinned. “We’re looking for a village so we can rest! You wouldn’t happen to know where one is, would you?”

Ian shook his head. “Sorry, we’re just as lost as you,” the other one was refusing to look up, and it was unsettling to him, “Hey, kid, are you okay?”

The boy looked up for a second, and for that second Ian saw more than he wanted to. Pure purple eyes. He and Husky needed to leave,  _ now _ . The boy looked back down almost instantly. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Before Ian could say anything, Husky butt in. “Hey! We should look for a village together!” Ian’s eyes widened.

“Husky, I don’t-”

“That’s a great idea!” The boy linked one arm up with one of the Brine’s, and the other one with one of Husky’s. “Let’s get searching!” Husky grabbed Ian’s good arm, and the next thing he knew he was being dragged back through the trees, stumbling to keep up with Husky and who he assumed was Ty. 

Ian looked over to his right, scared of the Brine and his intentions. He’d read the pamphlets, he knew who he was. But then again, the gods weren’t real, right? Just speculation, an explanation for how their world was formed that made the strangest of anomalies feel normal. There was another reason for the perfectly matching description, from the hair to the clothes, to the bright purple eyes that dimmed or brightened depending on what was happening. 

He wasn’t going to be scared of another new thing.

**Author's Note:**

> This one isn’t as long as the last one and is more disjointed but I hope you all like this one just as much as the last one :)


End file.
